UK streets could be populated with self-driving cars by as soon as 2026 in what is being described as a “watershed moment for UK automotive innovation and road safety”.
This is all thanks to a new bill that became law today. Named the Automated Vehicles Act, it will enable the introduction of fully-autonomous vehicles to UK roads within the next couple of years, provided they “achieve a level of safety at least as high as careful and competent human drivers”.
Yet, while these self-driving vehicles will still need a person to give inputs on occasion, the new law states that drivers will not be held responsible for how their vehicle acts when it is operating in its autonomous settings. Instead, the government says the legal culpability will be placed firmly on the manufacturer, as well as the insurance company that covers the car, with the driver not deemed a ‘driver’ per se, but a ‘user-in-charge’.
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